The Lawyer’s new Southeast Asia Elite report contains the most detailed research available on the local firms that are leading the way in the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region. It reveals which firms are best positioned to take advantage of the unified market and those that are true leaders in their individual markets... Read more

An exhaustive analysis of the UK market including every firm in the top 200 ranked, analysed and benchmarked, UK chambers ranked by turnover, revenue per barrister and which international firms are most active in the UK.

Essex firm Attwaters is a year into a five-year ­strategy last year that saw it install Sheenagh Parsons as ­managing partner. Under the new regime, Attwaters aimed to invest more heavily in the areas of corporate and ­private client and broaden the practice away from its ­traditionally largest areas of personal injury and ­clinical negligence.

In-housers have had it pretty much all their way of late, with strict pitch criteria meaning they can dictate terms and even get their law firms to do some menial work for their companies. It looks like that balance of power is not going unchallenged, however.

As the deadline for responses to Lord Justice Jackson’s interim report on civil litigation costs draws closer, it is worth noting that across the City senior litigators are questioning the motives behind the review.

The Guardian’s allegations that the News of the World had illegally tapped the phones of possibly thousands of public ­figures was met with wry amusement by those who battle for claimants against media defendants.

Shearman & Sterling has seen some significant changes of late: the US firm overhauled its management structure last year, electing new practice and office heads; it has made layoffs in the US and UK this year; it also relocated some of its most senior partners to overseas offices.

?Equity partners at firms in the ­silver circle will be taking home a significantly lower share of profits ­following the 2008-09 financial year, with profit per equity partner (PEP) falling by an average of 34 per cent.

Late last month the annual footballing ritual of The Lawyer’s Legal Fives football and netball tournament rolled around again. As ever, it was a hard-fought battle ­featuring the sporting cream of the UK legal market.

There’s nothing like a bit of protectionism for stirring up ill-feeling. As our lead story details, what started out as a group of Bulgarian firms marking their territory against an influx of foreign competition has turned into a full-scale battle, and each side is utterly incensed at the other’s actions.